CRT is real life

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I have a huge rear-projection TV too but it's awful and everything is displayed in 540p or 1080i. Your mileage may vary.

[hide77]

i hear ya. i really do.
but let me offer my 2 cents worth.

im an arcade fanatic, like some of you guys here.
i wished my country had something like the heart of gaming in london. (if you live in london, i'm so fucking jealous)

that is right up my alley. so, i opened up my own place while still juggling my day job and it will reach it's first year anniversary in july. 'Versus City - Singapore' on facebook.

before that, I had my hands dirty and learning about the intricacies of arcade components and everything else. I can't even tell you how sad i become whenever a CRT under my possession dies. i have converted to mostly LCD at home and in the gaming center.

god, i can't remember how many capacitor swaps I have done. You know whats the best part? It is not always the capacitors. There are times I have done cap swaps and they worked like new, and also several instances when I spent half a day swapping caps and it still doesn't work. My relationship with crt has been love and hate.

Sure, nothing beats a true crt with about perfect sync, geometry and convergence. I just don't have the time anymore. I was so desperate that I even contemplated installing a fan inside every good working crt that I have. I have given up on CRTs, and wheneve one dies, I will fit an LCD/LED into whatever I have.

Let me offer some suggestions since I have been through the hard route.

1: The tube almost never dies. The chassis dies.

2: Not everyone has the money/time/knowledge to do an RGB/Component mod. Usually,
the best out of the box solution is mostly S-Vid. IMO S Video is pretty darn good no matter what TV you use it on. It honestly does live up to it's given moniker, the SUPER VIDEO.

3: Early LCDs had S-Video. It also means that the technology you own isn't mature and most likely has an obscene lag/ghosting rate.

4: Newer screens have been better, but composite looks horrendous. However, component and HDMI of course looks great.

5: A great solution is to not go above 32 Inches (period) Anything now 23-32 inches are mostly safe. If you like scanlines, use a hardware simulated generators like the SLG3000,
I use my DC and one of my X360 setups on it and it rocks.

6: Get anything Asus especially the VH236 aka The Evo Monitor. (23"LCD) or the VX238 (23" LED). Or any of the Toshiba Power TV series 32 inches and below. At home, I use a 46" LED Bravia but it doesn't even have a VGA port. You get the whole picture now? The advancement of technology is not always a good thing. I also have a 32" Sharp Aquos LED which I love.

I wish I had access to more CRTs. But they are so hard to find in very good condition.

In reality, I concur with you that nothing beats an old solid CRT. I was just playing Kaiser Knuckle on the Astro City a few hours ago.

[dogman91]

As soon as I get to a point in my life where I have the room, I'm going to hoard a bazillion WEGA CRTs just for the reasons stated above. I don't ever want to be without a CRT.

It will be super nice to find a candy cab monitor like the Astro City; those are delicious. My dream is to have a tated one for shoot em ups.

[J T]

I have never owned anything other than a CRT television. I also never owned a console beyond the PS2.

[ninjainspandex]

I have never owned anything other than a CRT television. I also never owned a console beyond the PS2.

you play your modern PC games on a CRT?

[fastbilly1]

I have never owned anything other than a CRT television. I also never owned a console beyond the PS2.

you play your modern PC games on a CRT?

You have a problem with this?

[J T]

I have never owned anything other than a CRT television. I also never owned a console beyond the PS2.

you play your modern PC games on a CRT?

My laptop has an HD screen, but all my console gaming and movie/TV watching is done on CRT.

[dogman91]

I have never owned anything other than a CRT television. I also never owned a console beyond the PS2.

you play your modern PC games on a CRT?

My laptop has an HD screen, but all my console gaming and movie/TV watching is done on CRT.

That actually totally makes sense, as after the PS2 era is when developers stopped optimizing their games for consoles it seems (no 60fps, upscaled low resolution to 720p, etc. can all be bypassed simply by having the PC version of said game.)

[Kaneda]

i hear ya. i really do.
but let me offer my 2 cents worth.

im an arcade fanatic, like some of you guys here.
i wished my country had something like the heart of gaming in london. (if you live in london, i'm so fucking jealous)

that is right up my alley. so, i opened up my own place while still juggling my day job and it will reach it's first year anniversary in july. 'Versus City - Singapore' on facebook.

before that, I had my hands dirty and learning about the intricacies of arcade components and everything else. I can't even tell you how sad i become whenever a CRT under my possession dies. i have converted to mostly LCD at home and in the gaming center.

god, i can't remember how many capacitor swaps I have done. You know whats the best part? It is not always the capacitors. There are times I have done cap swaps and they worked like new, and also several instances when I spent half a day swapping caps and it still doesn't work. My relationship with crt has been love and hate.

Sure, nothing beats a true crt with about perfect sync, geometry and convergence. I just don't have the time anymore. I was so desperate that I even contemplated installing a fan inside every good working crt that I have. I have given up on CRTs, and wheneve one dies, I will fit an LCD/LED into whatever I have.

Let me offer some suggestions since I have been through the hard route.

1: The tube almost never dies. The chassis dies.

2: Not everyone has the money/time/knowledge to do an RGB/Component mod. Usually,
the best out of the box solution is mostly S-Vid. IMO S Video is pretty darn good no matter what TV you use it on. It honestly does live up to it's given moniker, the SUPER VIDEO.

3: Early LCDs had S-Video. It also means that the technology you own isn't mature and most likely has an obscene lag/ghosting rate.

4: Newer screens have been better, but composite looks horrendous. However, component and HDMI of course looks great.

5: A great solution is to not go above 32 Inches (period) Anything now 23-32 inches are mostly safe. If you like scanlines, use a hardware simulated generators like the SLG3000,
I use my DC and one of my X360 setups on it and it rocks.

6: Get anything Asus especially the VH236 aka The Evo Monitor. (23"LCD) or the VX238 (23" LED). Or any of the Toshiba Power TV series 32 inches and below. At home, I use a 46" LED Bravia but it doesn't even have a VGA port. You get the whole picture now? The advancement of technology is not always a good thing. I also have a 32" Sharp Aquos LED which I love.

I wish I had access to more CRTs. But they are so hard to find in very good condition.

In reality, I concur with you that nothing beats an old solid CRT. I was just playing Kaiser Knuckle on the Astro City a few hours ago.

I couldn't agree more, while I find retro gaming on HD looks and feels like playing an emulator I'm on broken Trinitron number 4 now, had all sorts of problems plus I work in electronics these things are a devil to fix "just replace a cap" is the common suggestion, bollocks. I dream they would start making them again..

The best thing might be to just keep buying CRTs until you find a good one, they're dirt cheap even compared to buying a flatscreen.

[chuckster]

To continue this thread, does anyone have solid recommendations on a 25"-27" shadow or slot mask CRT with component input? I have a few JVC and Sony PVMs, and I really prefer the look of the shadow-mask JVCs. I also have a big 35" Trinitron but it's aperture grill of course, and s-vid only.

I ask because my wife and I are putting together a retro room and I'd like something larger than my 20" PVMs (Melee or 4 player splitscreen can get a little cramped) but smaller than the behemoth trinitron, with component and a shadow-mask.

I assume the JVCs are good, and Panasonic. I've heard bad things about Samsung reliability and had a Sanyo 20" set that recently crapped out on me (I wish I knew how to fix it/ where to start). Toshiba gets good press too on most forums, but I was just wondering if anyone could give me some first hand experience, preferably from owning a PVM as well.